This book contains chapters presented at the International workshop ‘Minerals as Advanced Materials I’ that was held in the hotel of the Russian Academy of Sciences on the Imandra lake, Kola peninsula, one of the most beautiful places of the Russian North, during 8–12 July, 2007. The idea of the workshop originated from the necessity of interactions between mineralogy and material science, including all aspects of both these disciplines. Many important materials that dominate modern technological development were known to mineralogists for hundreds years, though their properties were not fully recognized. Mineralogy, on the other hand, needs new impacts for the further development in the line of modern scientific achievements, including novel insights provided by development of bio- and nanotechnologies as well as by the understanding of a deep role that information plays in the formation of natural structures and definition of natural processes. <...>

Первое в советской и зарубежной учебной и монографической литературе, систематическое изложение теории дифракции в объеме, необходимом для исследования электронного строения монокристаллов. В пособии изложены основы кинематической теорий дифракции рентгеновских лучей в применении к исследованию электронной плотности в монокристаллах, рассмотрено влияние на интенсивность дифрагированного кристаллом луча ангармонических тепловых колебаний, теплового диффузного рассеяния, анизотропии электронной плотности атомов, изотропной и анизотропной экстинк-ции, поглощения рентгеновских лучей в исследуемом кристалле.

Vesuvianite-group minerals (VGM) are widespread and occur in different geological formations including regional metamorphic rocks, skarns, rodingites, etc. Specific crystal-chemical features of these minerals reflect conditions of their crystallization. As a rule, high-temperature VGM have high-symmetry structures (space group P4/ nnc), whereas low-temperature samples are characterized by the symmetry P4/n or P4nc (Allen and Burnham 1992).

Spectroscopy is the study of the interaction of electromagnetic radiation with the matter. There are three aspects of the spectroscopic measurement: irradiation of a sample with electromagnetic radiation; measurement of the absorption, spontaneous emission and scattering (Rayleigh elastic scattering, Raman inelastic scattering) from the sample; and analysis and interpretation of these measurements. The main subject of our book is spontaneous luminescence of natural minerals. We have used the term luminescence, which is the general term of the phenomenon. Luminescence may be subdivided to the fast fluorescence with spin-allowed transition and slow phosphorescence with spin-forbidden transition. Afterglow may be added, which is related to emission after trapping of an electron elsewhere. <...>

In the book, data on geology, petrography of the rocks of the Khibiny massif, description of 70 mineral localities, as well as a brief historical report about industrial development of the massif are given. The main section of the book is devoted to the description of occurrences, morphology and properties of 436 minerals found within the massif. In addition, brief information about 35 doubtful or insufficiently investigated minerals is given in a separate section at the end of the book. The book includes 772 original microprobe analyses and contains 592 original colour and SEM-BSE photos, and also 342 references.

В книге приведены сведения по геологии Ковдорского массива ультраосновных, щелочных пород и карбонатитов, по петрографии слагающих его горных пород, краткая информация по истории его освоения. Основная часть книги посвящена описанию морфологии, свойств и состава 175 минералов, достоверно установленных в пределах массива. Ещё о 42 минералах, требующих дополнительного изучения, приведены краткие сведения в конце книги. Глава о минералах сопровождается 296 оригинальными результатами рентгеноcпектрального микроанализа, 210 цветными и РЭМфотографиями лучших образцов из частных и музейных коллекций.

Книга содержит последовательное изложение систематики атомных и молекулярных спектров. В первой части рассматриваются общие вопросы спектроскопии, во второй — вопросы атомной спектроскопии и в третьей — вопросы молекулярной спектроскопии.
Книга рассчитана на спектроскопистов и специалистов смежных специальностей — научных работников, инженеров, студентов старших курсов.

When using infrared spectroscopy for the study of minerals, researchers often face a number of specific difficulties. This may be due to various factors, including lack of available substance, small sizes of monomineral grains and aggregates, the presence of structural impurities and mechanical inclusions, instability of some minerals, scattering effects, atmospheric disturbance, background noice, anomalous dispersion, interference, etc. One can distinguish three kinds of sources of errors and artifacts in IR spectroscopy of minerals, which are connected with experimental procedures, data proceeding and data interpretation <...>

Over the past two decades, many curriculum changes have occurred in geology, Earth science, and environmental science programs in universities. Many of these have involved the compression of separate one-semester courses in mineralogy, optical mineralogy, and petrology into a single-semester offering that combines mineralogy and petrology, commonly called Earth Materials.

The title of the short course reads "Natural Zeolites"; however, the subject matter treated in the course and reviewed here deals primarily with those zeolites that occur in sedimentary rocks and which have formed by authigenic or burial diagenetic processes. Unfortunately, only limited coverage has been given to the classical occurrences of zeolites--the megascopic crystals in the vugs and cavities of basalts and other basic igneous rocks. Our only justification is that since the late 1950s, almost all major efforts on zeol ites have been directed towards the "sedimentary" occurrences, and it is these occurrences of zeolites in sedimentary rocks that are still unfamiliar to many geologists and mineralogists. It is our intention that this short course and these notes will playa small role in alleviating this unfamiliarity. <...>